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Taken

When the police tell a wealthy industrialist that her missing son has faked his own kidnapping, she hires Elvis Cole and Joe Pike-and Cole soon determines that it was no fake. The boy and his secret girlfriend have been taken, and are now lost in the gray and changing world of the professional border kidnappers who prey not only on innocent victims but also on one another-buying, selling, and stealing victims like commodities. Fortunately, the kidnappers don't yet know who the boy is, but when Cole goes undercover to try to buy the two hostages back, he himself is taken and disappears. Now it is up to Pike to retrace Cole's steps, burning through the hard and murderous world of human traffickers . . . before it is too late.

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I just discovered Robert Crais this year and thoroughly enjoyed his more recent novels. I decided and go back and read the beginning of the Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series, and I reached "Taken." It truly is a gem. Thank you Robert Crais.

Crais is a very good writer and he has the ability to use the same characters (Elvis Cole and Joe Pike) in the series but without having to continually repeat the same thing over and over again like some other authors do. I like his style and his sparky dialogue

Pretty scary read. Elvis Cole and Joe Pike never disappoint, and neither does Robert Crais. I liked the details of Korean, Mexican and Anglo interactions, as well as the side story of FBI involvement in the case. Reminded me of P.T. Deutermann thrillers involving government agencies and agents. Crais also introduces a new character, mercenary Jon Stone, whose crazed humor offsets Joe Pike's taciturnity and Elvis Cole's ironic comments.

I like Crais a lot, but he's fallen into the same thing that Robert Parker did: his hero and his hero's scary sidekick have each now killed more people than the Green River Killer and Ted Bundy combined. He needs to figure out a way to deal with this without adding another 10-20 bodies in the next one.